Marian Watts Society is VNA Health’s annual giving society of distinguished community members who invest in health and dignity. Members provide annual, sustaining support for VNA Health’s exceptional patient care.
VNA Health is the only home healthcare agency committed to Santa Barbara through a charitable mission. Membership in the Marian Watts Society supports our vision that everyone deserves to live with health and dignity, including those without adequate financial resources.
An annual gift of $1,000 or more qualifies for membership (event sponsorships excluded). Levels and benefits – and link to join – can be accessed here. Note: members who join in November or December will receive benefits through the next calendar year.
Distinguished Members of the 2022 Marian Watts Society
Inge Demuth & Karl Brown
Hutton Parker Foundation
Herbert & Elaine Kendall Charitable Foundation
The Mastick Foundation Inc.
Sherry Maudsley
Mary Orr
Susan & David Yossem
Copper Point Insurance
Debra & Daniel Gerber
Mimi Mauracher
Kathy & Mike McCarthy-The Nurture Foundation
John C. Mithun Foundation
Mr. & Mrs. J. Roger Morrison
Thomas Nalevanko
Coriander Stasi & Kieran Shah
Deanne Violich
Karen Wallace
Dr. & Mrs. Michael Bordofsky
Edith (Lou) Dartanner
Scott Franklin
Lee Hoyt & Pierce Dunn
Elaine Keenan
Santa Barbara Home Improvement Center ACE
Kate Schepanovich
Trudy Smith
Tana Sommer-Belin
David & Carolyn Spainhour
David Tisdale
Patricia Acton
Julia & Ramon Alcerro
Rebecca and Ben Benard
Susan & Don Bennett Family Fund
Dr. Lawrence Bines
Sally Anne Boughton
Patricia Bower Cooley
Ann & Ed Brady
Roberta Bratz
Richard Brown
Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Casey
Pamela Cox
Kathryn & Michael Dean
Carol Donner
Lauren & Nathaniel Erman
Noah Evans, Jr.
Kenneth Falstrom
Connie Frank Foundation
Sally H. Giloth
Mimi & Richard Gunner
Margo Handelsman
Karen Handy
The Hanrath Family
Victoria Harbison
Vicki & Bob Hazard
Hazel Heath Horton Philanthropic Trust
Elizabeth Hensgen
Marla Mercer & Frederick Herzog
Sandra Hunt
Shari & George Isaac III
Jeanne Johnston
Leslie Kahan
Mrs. Frances C. Keane
Dusty & Conor Keegan
Kenneth Kirkpatrick
Karen Kistler
Milan Kordestani
Kenneth Kraus & Perry Gibson
Robert La Cava
TJ Locker
Georgia Lynn
Laurie & Thad MacMillan
Jane Manasse
Betsy & Robert Manger
Barbara Margerum
Alixe & Mark Mattingly
Marjorie McKean
Marilynn E. Meyr
Samuel B. and Margaret C. Mosher Foundation
Kristine Muller
Alexandra & Robert Nourse
OneDigital Health and Benefits
Ann Padden-Rubin
Marcia Permut
Ann Linnett Pless
Lorraine & Keith Reichel
Alexander Rose
Richard Roston
Angelo Salvucci
Lynn Sarko & Laurie Ashton
Douglas J. Scalapinio
Suzi Schomer
Ingrid & Jim Shattuck
Susan Sheller
Steven Siry
Annie Sly
Jean McKibben Smith
Nancy P. Smith
Debbie Snyder & Brian Johnson
Prudence & Robert Sternin
Kay & Frank Stevens
Jackie Stoll
Felicia Sutherland
Alice Sykes & Joseph Lanza
Seigo Tanaka
Amy & Art Tracewell
Dale Van Mill
Amare Vita
Vos Family Foundation
Parmele Williams
Mona Wise
Judy & George Writer
Katina Zaninovich
Mr. & Mrs. Dick Zylstra
Read the impact of your support
Sonia was an important key to my recovery. She was very wonderful helping me with my medical care, organizing my medications, or helping when I was feeling overwhelmed and unable to walk long distances and unable to breathe normally. I am very grateful to her and to you for your nurses who can be compared to angels.
– JACQUELINE V.
Serenity House and VNA Health provide our community the love and care that is so important in the final days of those family members nearing the end of life. Your dedication to the dying, with love and compassion, allows the passing we all must face with dignity and care, and we all hope will be there when it is needed for us.
– WHIT AND JAN S.
In the beginning was a Visiting Nurse named Marian Watts
In 1908, Marian Watts – one of our country’s original visiting nurses – recruited a group of Santa Barbara women she described as “public spirited and farsighted” to build an organization with a philanthropic mission to serve the Santa Barbara community.
The innovation of Visiting Nurse Associations (VNAs) began in the 1880s in New York, where free nursing care was provided to those who otherwise could not afford it. After graduating from the first nursing class at Johns Hopkins University, Marian Watts continued the new trend of bringing care directly to the patient in need and began one of the first VNAs in Santa Barbara. With a small coalition of other women from Santa Barbara and Montecito, VNA of Santa Barbara began going to the home of patients who either physically could not make it to a hospital or simply could not afford the care they needed. In 1910, Marian purchased the organization’s first building on Haley Street (which still stands today) and even featured a “loan closet” with nursing supplies for caregivers and patients.
More than a century later and as vibrant as ever, VNA Health (formerly known as Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care) built by those pioneering women has outlasted every conceivable crisis: floods, fires, earthquakes, two world wars, and pandemics. Marian Watts began the necessary and compassionate care that Santa Barbara needed, and it has been sustained by VNA Health with continuous support from the community.
